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Anti-Keynesian Switcheroos

The fact that breaking windows would make a society poorer (fewer windows) is precisely why nobody ever proposes stimulating the economy by deliberately smashing windows. But the way the dialogue works is that first a Keynesian observes that fiscal stimulus can increase growth in a depressed economy. Second, as an attempted reductio, a conservative says “if that was true, then you could increase growth by breaking a bunch of windows.” Third, the Keynesian accurately points out that you could, in fact, increase growth by breaking windows. Fourth, the conservative accuses Keynesians of wanting to break windows or believing that window-breaking increases wealth.

But it’s not just breaking windows. As regular readers know, I’ve pointed out that World War II ended the Great Depression. Then critics say, how could war, a destructive activity, do anything good? I answer that when the economy is in a liquidity trap, there are a lot of perverse consequences. And then the critics declare that I’m a warmonger.

You have to assume that this kind of argument is made in deliberate bad faith — although I suspect that many of these people don’t remember what it is to make an argument in good faith.